Editing Decimal separator (section)

===English-speaking countries===
In the [[United States]], the full stop or period (.) is used as the standard decimal separator.

[[File:Interpunct as decimal point in Henderson 1839.png|thumb|upright=1.8|The [[interpunct]] (·) used as a decimal separator in a British print from 1839<ref>for example: {{cite journal |author=Henderson, Thomas |date=1839-01-03 |title=On the parallax of {{mvar|α}}&nbsp;Centauri |journal=[[Memoirs of the Royal Astronomical Society]] |volume=11 |pages=61–64, esp.&nbsp;64 |bibcode=1840MmRAS..11...61H |via=scan published by [[Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics]] }}</ref>]]
In the nations of the [[British Empire]] (and, later, the [[Commonwealth of Nations]]), the full stop could be used in typewritten material and its use was not banned, although the [[interpunct]] (a.k.a. decimal point, point or mid dot) was preferred as a decimal separator, in printing technologies that could accommodate it, e.g. {{nobr| 99·95 .}}<ref>{{cite book |author1=Reimer, L. |author2=Reimer, W. |year=1990 |title=Mathematicians are People, too: Stories from the lives of great mathematicians |volume=1 |page=41 |place=Parsippany, NJ |publisher=Pearson Education / Dale Seymor Publications |isbn=0-86651-509-7}}</ref> However, as the mid dot was already in common use in the mathematics world to indicate multiplication, the [[SI]] rejected its use as the decimal separator.

During the beginning of British [[metrication]] in the late 1960s and with impending currency [[decimalisation]], there was some debate in the United Kingdom as to whether the decimal comma or decimal point should be preferred: the [[British Standards Institution]] and some sectors of industry advocated the comma and the [[Decimal Day|Decimal Currency Board]] advocated for the point. In the event, the point was chosen by the [[Ministry of Technology]] in 1968.<ref>{{cite journal | title = Victory on points | year = 1968 | journal = Nature | volume = 218 | issue = 5137 | page = 111 | bibcode = 1968Natur.218S.111. | doi = 10.1038/218111c0 | doi-access = free}}</ref>

[[File:MUTCD-CA G11-6.svg|thumb|right|upright|x180px|California milepost marker at mile 144.44]]
When South Africa [[metrication|adopted the metric system]], it adopted the comma as its decimal separator,<ref>{{cite periodical |title=Government Notice R.&nbsp;1144 |periodical=Government Gazette |issue=4326 |date=5 July 1974 |page=55 |url=https://laws.parliament.na/cms_documents/gg-4326-a7726e51e7.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210308203659/https://laws.parliament.na/cms_documents/gg-4326-a7726e51e7.pdf |archive-date=8 March 2021 }}</ref> although a number of house styles, including some English-language newspapers such as ''[[Sunday Times (South Africa)|The Sunday Times]]'', continue to use the full stop.{{citation needed|date=January 2015}}

Previously, signs along [[California]] roads expressed distances in decimal numbers with the decimal part in superscript, as in 3<sup><u>7</u></sup>, meaning 3.7.<ref>{{cite magazine|title=Signposts: Directions for the Traveler Are Hundreds of Years Old|first=George M.|last=Webb|work=[[California Highways and Public Works]]|location=Sacramento, California|publisher=California Division of Highways|volume=35|issue=5–6|date=May–June 1956|page=11|url=https://libraryarchives.metro.net/dpgtl/californiahighways/chpw_1956_mayjun.pdf#page=13}}</ref> Though California has since transitioned to [[mixed number]]s with [[common fraction]]s, the older style remains on [[California postmile|postmile]] markers and bridge inventory markers.